The Motherland Travels

The Fear of the Motherland project begins its first journey across Quebec and the world.

Thanks to the invitation of Julie Prieur and Vuk Stojanovic - the organizers of the Val-Morin Auteur Film Festival - the installation will be able to be experienced at the Théâtre du Marais from April 29 to May 4, 2025.

Fear of the Motherland is an interactive sculpture created in collaboration with Stéphane Grisé, painter-carpenter, and Samuel St-Aubin, new media artist. The video editing is done by Jéricho Jeudy . The music for "Swallowed" is composed by Delphine Cloarec .

Like a cross between a medieval iron maiden and a timeless Russian doll, I wanted Fear of the Motherland to project an image of violence—archaic, raw, and frightening, as totalitarianism and war continue to rage in the world ever closer to the very bastions of democracy. As a citizen of a totalitarian country, I know very well the fear of this violence and I would like to communicate it to the Western public.

The Motherland works with a sonar, an ultrasonic sensor manufactured by MaxBotix. It is a high-performance distance detector, used in robotics, drones, and security systems. The sensor emits a wave that travels through the air until it encounters an object, then it is reflected back to the sensor. The sensor captures the reflected echo. It measures the time between transmission and reception and communicates it to Arduino, a mini electronic brain that analyzes the received measurement and, if the distance matches the programmed measurements, forwards the command to the motor brain, which opens the doors of the Motherland.

Once opened, Motherland invites you to put on your headphones and watch a video—a test of patriotism. Throughout the video, Motherland gives orders. If you follow them to the end, you leave with a Motherland device inside you. I wanted to add a touch of absurd humor to make the experience of fear easier to "swallow."

Inside the Mouth of the Motherland unfolds a gallery of portraits of those "swallowed" by violence. It is a tribute to political prisoners in Russia through the decades —from the first victims of the Bolsheviks in the 1930s to Navalny, a Russian opposition politician who became a personal enemy of Putin, killed in a Russian prison in February 2024. Among these innocent citizens imprisoned or executed on the orders of the Bolsheviks, there are artists, writers, poets, farmers, politicians; men, women, children .

The installation mixes electronics, wood, video art and edible elements to provoke unease and questioning about totalitarianism. among Western audiences. The pens—pikes of the Iron Maiden—symbolize the violence of the bureaucracy that sustains the war machine of a totalitarian society.

I am delighted that the first exhibition of Fear of the Motherland outside Montreal is taking place in the Laurentians. For over ten years, I have spent my summers in Val-David and have a unique connection with this beautiful and peaceful place.